High Schools To Gain $1 Million

Money Granted To Preserve Programs

April 7, 2005|By Scott Travis Education Writer

When School Board members pledged $300,000 to save electives at Dreyfoos School of the Arts, they opened the floodgates to county high schools.

West Boca High School asked for money for career programs. Wellington High School needed dollars to restore 30 electives that had been cut. Spanish River High School in Boca Raton wanted more teachers to meet its high demand for Advanced Placement classes.

On Wednesday, Superintendent Art Johnson and the School Board reached a compromise to placate schools that complained of inequities. All high schools will get more money because of a change in the way Advanced Placement money will be doled out. Dreyfoos won't get a $300,000 check, but it will get the flexibility that educators think will keep its programs intact.

"We have to solve this as a system," Johnson said. "We cannot pit one school against another or one principal against another."

The solution Johnson proposed was to allow high schools to keep all the money they generate from Advanced Placement exams.

The state gives schools $922 for every student who passes an AP exam, about $5 million last year. But the district has kept 20 percent of that.

Parents and educators at Spanish River High School, which generated about $765,000 in AP money, argued the system was unfair. They were particularly outraged after hearing the board voted last week to provide Dreyfoos up to $300,000.

"Yes, Dreyfoos needs its money, but so does Spanish River," Principal Connie Tuman-Rugg said. "My parents believe this is inequity at its greatest level."

High schools will receive at least a combined $1 million in extra money. The increases range from $150,000 for Spanish River to $184 for Pahokee Middle-Senior, which had just one student pass an AP test last year. Johnson said the new money will be an incentive for schools to enroll more students in AP classes.

Dreyfoos had requested $300,000 to pay for five elective teaching spots. The school will get at least $104,380 from the AP money, which is almost enough to pay for two teachers. The school also will get three new positions with state class-size reduction money. That money is supposed to be used for core academic classes, but the school already has small academic classes, so Johnson is giving Principal Ellen VanArsdale authority to use the positions as she sees fit.

The compromise satisfied Patty Eckert, who has two children at Dreyfoos.

"We'll be able to keep our programs intact," she said. "That's the bottom line."

VanArsdale thinks her school's foundation, which paid for 6 1/2 teachers last year, will continue to pay for some this year. But both VanArsdale and Johnson said they want to move away from using foundation money to pay for teachers.

The budget cuts started two years ago when the district had to comply with state law to reduce the size of academic classes. The schools lost $12 million worth of elective teachers.

Schools with career academies, arts classes and academic electives complained that the cuts made it tough to run high-quality programs.

"I'm glad you gave money to Dreyfoos," Fran Giblin, principal of West Boca Raton High, told School Board members. "You opened the door to other schools. In the long run, it will benefit all of our high schools."

Scott Travis can be reached at stravis@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6637.